Thursday, December 8, 2011

Every day, there are multitudes of blessings to be thankful for. On this day, a long-awaited blessed event took place. Alissa gave birth to Anna Joy. Because of the two major heart defects Anna was born with, she underwent two surgeries immediately following. I am sharing the family photo and post-surgery blog posting from Alissa's family because I know so many of you have been concerned about and saying prayers for Alissa, her husband Matt, their son Isaac, and their newborn daughter, Anna Joy.

"Anna is
out of surgery. The doctors were able to do the three things they were hoping to
do. Anna's pulmonary veins are very abnormal, making it difficult for her lungs
to function. She has been put on an ECMO machine which will act as her heart and
lungs while her heart and lungs try to heal. Please pray that Anna's body will
react positively to the help she received in surgery, and that the ECMO machine
causes no damage. Please also pray for Matt and Alissa...that they will
experience a peace that surpasses all understanding."

You can go to their blog . . . www.babyannajoy.blogspot.com to keep up with Anna Joy's progress. You may also see news of her birth and special medical attention on the local news; I just did on King 5's 10 p.m. newscast on KONG-TV.

We're back after a marathon return flight schedule. We were to depart Paris on a non-stop flight to Seattle that would be approximately 11 hours of flight time in Economy Premier seating, arriving around 12 noon local PST. Our actual total flying and lay-over time combined made our day 27 hours long by the time we made it home.The airline changed our connecting flight from Milan to Paris before we left. That change, coupled with a delay on the Milan-Paris flight by 20 minutes, caused us to miss the connecting flight home. The plane was still at the gate but they would not allow us to board, along with approx. 25+ other passengers.We had to wait another 3 hours for a flight to Detroit, with a scheduled 3 hour layover for a connecting flight to Seattle not in premium seating that we had paid for. The flight to Detroit was an hour late getting in and by the time we went through customs, re-checked our luggage, and went through security again, we had less than an hour to board the final flight. And they could not upgrade our seating; however, they were able to seat us together.Our flight landed around 10:00 p.m., 25 hours later from our departure in Milan. We arrived at the parking lot to find the battery in Tom's key fob had expired after some investigative work and another hour trying to figure it out. Luckily I had brought my car keys and because both cars are from the same manufacturer, we were able to change out my key battery with Tom's. We arrived home after midnight. Needless to say, I was able to go to bed without reading and fall asleep almost immediately for the first time in I don't know how many months.

And now we've received an email from Air France apologizing for the flight delays yesterday. Luckily, that email will be replied to by me; if my husband utters "Air France" or even hears that airline name again, he is going to explode.

During the flight, I discovered another feature on my camera . . .

﻿

somewhere over the Atlantic south of Iceland I see a reflection of the sun

somewhere over a large bay in northeastern Canada

coming into Detroit, Michigan around 5:00 p.m., EST

I was in the store just before closing tonight and saw some more beautiful new card samples and a special paper crafting project by Marj. My camera wasn't with me so I'll take those pics tomorrow and post them.

In the meantime, check this out from Els atElizabeth Craft Designs:

﻿

Quick little "Shimmer Sheetz" ornaments

"Judi Kauffman has been making some elegant and easy embossed Shimmer Sheetz ornaments to send in her holiday cards. The birds and stars are flat, the snowflake is nearly flat - all weigh next to nothing, which means no added postage. Her instructions follow. We'd love to see what you have been making so please send ...photos of your ornaments, cards, and other projects. These ornaments take mere minutes, not counting drying time for the StazOn ink (Tsukineko) and Silks iridescent acrylic glaze (LuminArte/Dreaming in Color). First, use a matching (Sizzix) die and embossing folder to cut and emboss a Shimmer Sheetz star, bird, or snowflake in whatever color you prefer. Shown: Bird is Light Pink Iris, Stars are White Iris, for the snowflake, I used white cardstock for the base layer and White Iris for the punched snowflakes I added for extra dimension. As a final touch to the snowflake, I placed a sparkly a Silver/Gold glitter snowflake peel-off at the center (punch from EK Success). One star and one bird have no embellishments, the surface is unaltered - those ornaments take about two minutes! For one of the stars, I brushed Silks in Golden Nugget over the surface, for the other I used StazOn in Iris purple first, then sanded, used a rag to dust the surface, and then brushed on Golden Nugget. For one of the birds I used StazOn in Iris purple and Black, then sanded, used a rag to dust the surface and accented with Glitter Dots in Violet. Punch a 1/16" hole, add a fine cord to hang."

"Gold Embossed Shimmer Sheetz and played with the Black and Gold Staz Onuntill I had the result I liked. Slightly sanded at the end."

"Gold embossed piece of Shimmer Sheetz and played with the alcohol inks and my first attempt to work with the gold Mixatives. Used way to much so rubbed it off, sanded a little bit, used some black Staz On and rubbed it off. Well you can hear that I don't know exactly anymore how I did it but that is the beauty of Shimmer Sheetz,it is always going to be OK:)."

"Gold Shimmer Sheetz, embossed with two different embossing folders and used a sanding block which makes the dots pop up even more"

"Gold Shimmer Sheetz, embossed and rub over the piece with the black Staz On.This will take you one minute!"

Tomorrow is another day. I am reacquainting myself with these very cold temperatures that feels colder because it is more damp. We've been reunited with Hannah and we love watching her tail wag when she sees us because she's happy to be home as well.